Attic

An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building (also called garret, loft or sky parlor). Attic is generally the North American English term for it. As attics fill the space between the ceiling of the top floor of a building and the slanted roof, they are known for being awkwardly shaped spaces with exposed rafters and difficult-to-reach corners. While some attics are converted into bedrooms or home offices, complete with windows and staircases, most attics remain hard to reach and neglected, and are typically used for storage. It is a word ultimately derived from the Attica region around Athens, Greece.

Attics can also help control temperature in a house by providing a large mass of slowly moving air. Hot air rising from lower floors of a building often gets retained in the attic, further compounding their reputation as inhospitable environments. However, in recent years many attics have been insulated to help decrease heating costs since on average, uninsulated attics account for 15% of the total energy loss in a typical house.

In some places "attic" is used more specifically to apply to lofts which have boarded floors and ceilings, and usually windows or skylights, and then "loft" is kept to mean a dark, unboarded roof-space which lacks these features.